Lady, lady, I take you today. No ticket! No tourist!

I’m standing in the town square reviewing my inventory of polite rejections when, lo and behold, my rogue sense of intuition wrests its way to the forefront and I hear myself saying, “Okay, so where are we going?” An abnormally large Naxi woman emerges from the shadows and sizes me up. “You ride horse?” she asks rather skeptically. “Sure, I ride horse,” I respond indignantly, at once calling to mind a favorite movie, True Grit.

Rooster Cogburn: Mr. Rat, I have a writ here says you’re to stop eating Chin Lee’s cornmeal forthwith. Now it’s a rat writ, writ for a rat, and this is lawful service of the same. See, doesn’t pay any attention to me.
[shoots the rat]
Chin Lee: [Runs into the room] Outside is place for shooting!
Rooster Cogburn: I’m servin’ some papers!

Okay, I know that had nothing to do with anything, but I liked it.

Anyway, thanks to trusty intuition, and the kind attention of my guides Richard and Li, I had a most magical day. I rode a shaggy little horse four hours up a steep mountain trail — the very path that for hundreds of years has linked southwest China to Tibet. At the summit were views of the Yangtze River and the breathtaking Snow Mountains, known to us as the Himalaya.

When the blue haze lifted, I could see all the way to everywhere.

TO THE LEFT OF THE CENTER PEAK IS THE MOUNTAIN VILLAGE

ALPINE FLOWERS AND CROPS

MARIJUANA MAKES A PRETTY CONTRAST

THE NAXI VILLAGE

VIEW OF LASHI LAKE

ME LIVING LARGE ON A TEENY TINY HORSE

PEPPER BERRIES


NAXI WOMEN PICKING PEPPER BERRIES

A BOY HIDING BEHIND HIS CABBAGE

AFTER TEN MINUTES OF CAJOLING HE’S READY TO POSE

ALPINE DOGHOUSE

THE MASTER’S CAMPSITE

FIRST BEND of the YANGTZE RIVER

LOOKING TOWARD TIBET

MY TRAIL GUIDE

OUR TRUSTY LITTLE STEEDS

MARIE AND RICHARD INCONSEQUENTIAL

THE NAXI MEN AFTER I BLEW THEM A KISS!